Pope Francis a “headache” for GOP presidential hopefuls?

Rick Santorum prays at a fundraiser in 2012 by Gage Skidmore / Wikipedia Commons

From Bloomberg: 

It is a new era for the Roman Catholic church, much to the dismay of three of its Republican members who are poised to run for president.

On issues ranging from climate change, lifting the U.S. embargo on Cuba, and the demotion of an anti-gay American bishop, Pope Francis has shown himself to be more liberal than many of the men who will likely seek the GOP presidential nomination, including Catholics like Rick Santorum and Marco Rubio.

The rift between the Vatican and American conservatives has been building ever since Francis was named to succeed Benedict, and flared dramatically over his 2013 critique of the bedrock GOP principle of free-market capitalism.

“Inequality is the root of social ills,” Francis said, adding, “as long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems.”

While Republicans like Santorum, Rubio, and Jeb Bush—who converted to Catholicism in 1995—have begun focusing on inequality in America, and insuring that the economic recovery is extended to those left behind, some declarations made by Francis have not gone over as well.

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